Need For Speed 4: High Stakes

Need for Speed is refined, upgraded, and improved (but not by much) in a classic EA remake.

In High Stakes, the fifth iteration of Need for Speed, EA went the way of the fan. Listening to its fan base closely, the engineers of the series took the core of the series and built out from the best kernels, while refining and remolding other areas in need of improvement. The results are much like the annual update to an EA Sports game; it's a better game, but just by a little.

Still, that gives us plenty with which to work. Because to be fair, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit was a great game, and its biggest competitor was Sony's Gran Turismo, a wholly different level of vehicle.

Gameplay The designers of Need for Speed: High Stakes learned much from Gran Turismo, as seen from a number of elements in this new game. One could say that High Stakes has gone a little further, in fact. Not in actual realism (physics in particular), an aspect that has actually improved in High Stakes, but in other areas, such as car damage, aerial stunts, and in pursuing a particular license, that of the lovely Porsche.

After a number of improvements, High Stakes has reached a new high in the series. With last year's excellent graphic and special effects makeover, as well as a better-developed Cop AI, EA focused less on overall graphics and more on driving specialties. Sporting at least five modes, Test Drive, Single Race, Hot Pursuit, Tournaments, and Special Events, the gameplay varies greatly. The first three are self-explanatory, though Hot Pursuit needs a little explanation. This year there are three levels of difficulty, and duel races; each with increased cop car AI and physical smashing force. In order to pull you over cops will ram into you head on, cleverly pick at your backside, and doggedly thrust you into walls, fences, cliffs and roadblocks. All driver cars are upgraded with a scanner type radio, so now you can overhear what the cops are saying to one another, thus enabling you to foresee upcoming roadblocks and tack strips. And yes, the macho super cop with the bitchin' sports car is back for more in each race.

Tournament and Special Events are where the game has changed significantly. By entering these, you'll compete in several increasingly difficult races in which money is earned and medals won. You'll also earn the chance to sell old cars and buy new ones, or even upgrade current cars by at least three levels. Each time you win a tournament, you earn cash and the right to enter another, much more difficult challenge. New courses open up and old ones are mirrored, altered with weather conditions, or as in the open races, civilian cars will sprawl across the roads in oncoming and same-side traffic.

What's worth special notice is that cars now incur damage. You can flip, spin, endo, perform head-on collisions, or watch the particle engine spark it up as you scrape the car against guard rails, but you'll pay for it. And not just in cash, but in performance. After a few somersaults and a few head-ons, cars lose the high notes as it were. High speeds are decreased, acceleration is thwarted, and cornering becomes a chore. Here, only the finest racers are rewarded.

But damage is only the first and lesser aspect of what EA means by High Stakes. The other is the ultimate challenge, the final braggart's rights, the race de Morte, and the means by which you can clearly define yourself as the king of the road. This of course is the High Stakes part of the game. After having earned a Diablo, Corvette, Porsche, or whatever your fancy, racers can then enter into a do-or-die challenge with a friend (or enemy). By entering such a race, whomever places first not only earns the glory of winning, but also takes the opponent's car from his or her memory card, which is then wiped clean or it, for good. It's the ultimate ball-buster, and a blast for serious competitions.

Graphics High Stakes is a good-looking game with some seriously gorgeous tracks. The race through France (Route Adonf) is highlighted with an entire passage of pink and white Camelias, and Canada's Kodiak Park has a fully detailed train running alongside the course. As with last year's engine, realtime lighting and specular highlighting define the better points of the game's graphics. The cars show drivers in them, details such as license plate numbers, and like we said before, damage. Damage appears on all of the cars. How the car company's let EA get away with it, we're not sure. Regardless, it's cool. Fenders are bent up, windshields are completely shattered, side panels are scraped, and dents abound. The car model itself doesn't change form, but the textures alter to show the costly result of careless driving.

The only stickler I have about High Stakes' look is the frame rate. Usually developers give up frames for more detail, or vice versa. You can't always have everything, they say. But that's not always true. Look at Gran Turismo... Well, in any case, the frame rates in High Stakes could have been...should have been higher and more consistent. OK, I have one more, the load times. They suck, bottom line. Will EA ever learn to make a game with decent load times? Oh, and did I mention resolution? Sorry about that, the resolution still isn't that great, but I suppose the PC version will be nice and high. Sigh...

Sound Maybe I never noticed it before, but did the music quality increase five-fold or what? The range of house music and techno is superb in this game. It's not stereotypical by any means and on occasion, I simply hung out at the menu screens and listened to the music. You know the music is good when this happens. The music is in Dolby, and you have a choice of stereo or mono, so if you have your PlayStation hooked up to a stereo, I would advise cranking it up.

As far as sound effects go, car crunch and pop with relatively accurate sounds. Each car also revs up and hits top speeds with completely different sounds effects. So, the Porsche, the Mercedes, and the BMW all sound much like their real-life counter parts. The cop-car radios sound great, with appropriate static and CB effects, and the cops themselves don't take on caricatures that so often deflate a game's self-worth.

In the end, High Stakes is a well-rounded package. It's got tremendous competitive spirit, and enough changes (10 international tracks) and alterations to earn hard-core gamers' respect. It's still not the top tog out there, but with that especially killer Porsche license (that no one else seems to have), drivers who dig on speeding around in a 911 at 150-plus miles per hour are going to simply wet themselves.